Doug has earned three first-place awards for criticism and feature writing from the American Association of Sunday and Feature Editors. In addition to being the TV critic at the Sun-Times, he writes the nationally syndicated video game column The Game Dork, which runs weekly in major daily newspapers.

Before Doug became an entertainment critic in 1997, he covered politics, courts, hurricanes and other hard-news stories for newspapers in the South, winning awards for investigative journalism and editorial writing. He's written for papers in Las Vegas, New Orleans, Daytona Beach, Atlanta and Panama City, Fla., where he co-hosted a local NPR public-affairs show.

A native of San Francisco, he was raised in New Orleans and Athens, Ga. He earned a partial music scholarship at the University of Georgia and sang in a satirical garage band. Then he traded music for writing, and majored in journalism (and minored in history) at his alma mater, LSU-Baton Rouge, where he was managing editor of The Daily Reveille.

His weaknesses are sugary cereals and chocolate, and he loves riding the El.